• Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    “Clippy sucked and everyone hated it but tech giants currently do mych more and nobody complains.”

  • thericcer@reddthat.com
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    2 hours ago
    • If I knew it was lucrative to steal and sell your data. In clippy’s era this was unheard of.
  • luce [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    I know that it is common to turn a symbol initially built against you into one which now benefits you, but I don’t think that’s whats going to happen with Clippy primarily because of message here isn’t “Clippy wants us to move into a future where we own our tech/social infrastructure” but instead “man, im really nostalgic for the way corporations used to treat us”

    I have no problem using a symbol developed my Microsoft to spread anti-big tech messaging. The problem is that to a lot of people, the messaging doesn’t feel ant-big tech or anti-capitalist so much as it is just nostalgic. Microsoft was never a nice company. Even in the 1990s they were exercising their E.E.E (Embrace, Extend, Extinguish) strategy to beat federated and decentralized platforms and technologies. The goal of these companies (and you can see it now in their attitudes towards AI) is to own as much social infrastructure as they can. From where you get your news to where you get your friends. The only way to work against this is to work against big tech. There is no other way.

    Part of me wonders if the message behind the current Clippy symbol can be bent into something more forward facing, but I also feel that that would be hard/would feel artificial because of the fact that Clippy is just now so connected to nostalgia.

    • dogs0n@sh.itjust.works
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      1 hour ago

      I know that it is common to turn a symbol initially built against you into one which now benefits you

      The idea behind using clippy was that when created, it wasn’t against you; it was always just there to help, with no alterior motive.

      The problem is that to a lot of people, the messaging doesn’t feel ant-big tech or anti-capitalist

      Seeing clippy is more of a message without a message. It could have been any image, but seeing this one thing everywhere starts to show you how many of us there are and that we are capable of working together to achieve a goal (in this specific case: outreach).

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    11 hours ago

    Nobody thinks Clippy was good, and that’s the point. In the original video Louis Rossmann does talk about Microsoft’s shenanigans with IE at the time.

    The point is that Clippy was widely considered to be bad, and everyone considered Microsoft to be bad at the time, but everything involving technology has become so much worse since. Microsoft would be considered the most ethical tech company in the world if they still operated the way they did in the 90s. It’s not the Microsoft was good in the 90s (far from it!) it’s that Microsoft and all of the other tech companies have gotten so much worse since then.

    The clippy thing is kinda genius really. We’ve been boiling the frog on a lot of things and we don’t really think about how much worse things are now than they used to be. People in positions of power now probably did encounter Clippy when they were younger. Reminding them about how annoying Clippy was may make them realize how much more annoying they’re being when making decisions about technology.

    • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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      10 hours ago

      I hate clippy. As a millennial who did use the version of MS office (briefly anyway) that had clippy I did get a bit of nostalgia and I installed a VM of windows 95 and installed the version of office with clippy in it.

      Then… I instantly remembered WHY I hated him. The reason is that when he pops up to offer you useless advice, he fully takes control and interrupts your work and you have to dismiss him to continue what you were doing. He does it often, too.

  • ThePuy@feddit.nl
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    11 hours ago

    It’s a symbol, it’s easily recognizable for it’s simplicity and only aim to help.

    It helps us feel less alone and to find the resolve to fight togheter.

    Y’all just love to feel miserable don’t you?

    • AOCapitulator [they/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      10 hours ago

      How can you stand to lie to yourself about reality, which is miserable?

      I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t face reality and instead pretended I didn’t see what was in front of my eyes

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      not really. meaningless acts like this only serve to satisfy people enough that they don’t feel the need to do something more meaningful. a protest that doesn’t inconvenient anyone is not a protest. it’s compliance with an asterisk.

      • cally [he/they]@pawb.social
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        10 hours ago

        meaningless acts like this only serve to satisfy people enough that they don’t feel the need to do something more meaningful

        someone who is satisfied by doing a “meaningless act” wouldn’t do something more direct either way.

      • ThePuy@feddit.nl
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        10 hours ago

        This is not a protest, this is a rally to arms, misery doesn’t motivate change

        • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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          9 hours ago
          • Step 1: Change your profile picture
          • Step 2: ???
          • Step 3: Surveillance Capitalism is defeated
          • ThePuy@feddit.nl
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            7 hours ago

            I’m sorry, next time we start a movement we’ll be sure to send you a detailed plan step by step dumb proof, sorry for trying to get people onto even acknowledging an issue and making people realise that they are not alone

            • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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              6 hours ago

              Thank you, that would be a good step in the right direction so we can coordinate together.

              BTW, I think it’s more of a call to arms to boycott companies that follow these practices, as a step one. Other steps might be more similar to how one fights fascist regimes.

              • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                4 hours ago

                Are you not familiar with Louis Rossman? I think this “change your pfp to clippy” thing is dumb as hell too, and I’m upset that this is the thing from him that broke into the “mainstream”.

                He’s been championing right to repair, boycotting shit companies, documenting corporate bait and switches for years. He started and runs consumerrights.wiki, to document companies pulling shit like pushing out an update to smart TVs that blocks you from continuing to use them unless you agree to let them harvest your data. And ways to work around it. Trying to hold these fuckers accountable.

                Only a few weeks ago he put up a $5000 bounty for anyone that could jailbreak a specific smarthome product that is trying to get owners to now pay $100 a year to keep running.

                Again, I loathe this clippy bullshit, but “it’s not enough” applies to the people doing it, not the guy who started it. There is a movement, this is just so far the only part of it to hit mainstream.

  • Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works
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    18 hours ago

    Somebody in the MS marketing department: ‘Everyone hates clippy. What can we do about this?’

    ‘Paste a couple gifs of a CGI dog on top of it?’

    ‘Genius! Let’s go to our two week lunch!’

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      11 hours ago

      It was kinda hilarious that when you disabled the Windows XP file search dog there was actually an animation of him sadly walking away.

    • eecobb@lemmy.sdf.org
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      14 hours ago

      30 years later:
      'Everyone hates us. What can we do about this?’

      ‘Make it fashionable for people born in 2003 to pretend to be nostalgic for Clippy?’

      • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 hours ago

        It started from right to repair advocate Louis Rossman. If MS has got their claws in him the right to repair movement has just stalled out.

        • eecobb@lemmy.sdf.org
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          3 hours ago

          It’s not really necessary to get their claws in him; the more this trend gains attention, the less nuanced and directed the trajectory will become. Microsoft is much more equipped to algorithmically control the trajectory than what’s-his-name, so they will.
          If they’re not too distracted with providing warfighting capabilities to our boys here and abroad.

        • eecobb@lemmy.sdf.org
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          10 hours ago

          alt text

          “On the smartphone screen, a TikTok video from Fortnite is displayed. A character in a Microsoft Clippy skin is dancing energetically. Beside Him, another player, in a the skin of a distinctive, older man with a beard and a blue suit, is also dancing. The background is vibrant and colorful, typical of a Fortnite environment. The characters are moving rhythmically to the music, creating a lively and entertaining scene.”

  • Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works
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    17 hours ago

    ‘Looks like you could use some help investing in crypto! Let me help, but you should have a solid investment in a couple tech stocks first…’

  • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    No! If we just change our avatars to Clippy the tech giants will feel really bad and stop harvesting our data and locking us out of our products! Then we’ll be able to keep forking our money over to those same companies but it’ll be okay 'cause they’ll be nice now!

      • moon@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 hours ago

        This communication serves as a formal notice regarding your unauthorized use of the likeness of Microsoft Clippy, a trademarked character owned by Microsoft Corporation. Your actions constitute a clear violation of our intellectual property rights.

        The use of Clippy’s likeness in your project not only infringes upon our trademarks but also creates significant consumer confusion regarding the origin and sponsorship of your work. Such misrepresentation poses a direct threat to the integrity and reputation of the Clippy brand.

        Please be advised that if you do not immediately cease and desist from this unauthorized use, we will take all necessary legal actions to protect our rights, including but not limited to the potential shutdown of your servers to prevent further infringement.

        You are required to remove all references to Microsoft Clippy from your project and provide written confirmation of compliance by [specific date, e.g., 14 days from today]. Failure to comply will compel us to pursue legal remedies without further notice.

        We expect your immediate attention to this serious matter.

    • cally [he/they]@pawb.social
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      10 hours ago

      the tech giants will feel really bad and stop harvesting our data

      That’s not what changing your profile picture is meant to do, nobody (as far as I’m aware) is claiming that’s the goal. The goal is to get people wondering why others have a Clippy profile picture, then they might search it up and learn about consumer rights and enshittification.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      13 hours ago

      Lol… I saw that headline (“Everyone should change their avatar to clippy. Seriously,” or something like that), and saw that it linked to a video, and I was just like ‘nah’.

      • Lemmynster19@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        It comes from Louis Rossmann. He said this, so that we (i changed my profile pic as well) know, that we are not alone, and see how many of us there are. Obviously if we dont do anything else, this clippy thing wont do anything.

  • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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    1 day ago

    We’re sorry to see your disapproval of corporate capitalism. Please take 1 hour of your day to send us some feedback so we can improve.

    First, just download our UMata app from the app store, by reading this message you have already agreed to our terms of surveillance. Once the UMata app is installed on your device, it will be granted kernel level access so it can periodically extract biometric identifiers like facial and iris scans in the background without you needing to do anything. After verifying your facial scan against our database of government identities, the UMata app will generate a unique URL for you to take a “totally anonymous”™ survey.

    Once at the survey page, you just need to enable JavaScript, disable adblocker, accept our cookies and solve a simple CAPTCHA identifying any homeless people. If the UMata app was somehow not able to record you breathing for your biometric signature to our licensing agreement, you will be asked to breathe harder.

    We are excited to hear back from you!

    • Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works
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      17 hours ago

      I’m reading ‘The Circle’ by Dave Eggers right now, and he totally foresaw all knowing corporative control back in the 2010s.

      It is a tome at 500 pages, but a great read, so far.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        13 hours ago

        Not gonna shit on Eggers or anything, but I don’t think that concept was new in the 2010s.

        Snow Crash is one that comes to mind right away, but I haven’t read The Circle, so maybe I’m wrong about what you’re referring to. I think William Gibson probably wrote about similar themes at some point as well.

        If you haven’t read Snow Crash, btw, you should. It’s fucking awesome

        • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          14 minutes ago

          The RIAA in the early 1999/2000 was the epitome of corpo-surveillance and capitalist bullshit.

          We got a notice and suspended Comcast account (Roadrunner at the time but all the same company underneath). Because someone uploaded Metallica songs to a server my little brother was running to share 3D models and shaders.

          There were lawsuits about shared IP addresses, open Wi-Fi networks for days and the recording and later, movie industries doing this shit for over 25 years now.

        • Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works
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          12 hours ago

          Definitely loved Snow Crash. Similar message that everything will be shared/recorded. In The Circle it’s a bit more chilling, for me at least, because every person is a ‘Gargoyle’ that HAS to record and share every thought and emotion and event, and it’s all happening in a somewhat boring cyber-corpo near future dystopia, whereas SC was a madcap over the top cyberpunk playground.

          Where I’m at in The Circle, employees of the big tech company are expected to share pics of everything they do and comment on everything their coworkers do. Fill out a minimum of 500 survey questions a day on top of their daily work quota. Everyone’s work performance is shared for Friendly Competition.

          I’d go on, but there’d be spoilers.

          So, like you said, definitely not an original idea, just a slightly more current and boringly believable dystopia than rad pizza delivering samurais and viral languages developing on pirated barges floating in trash gyres in the Pacific.

    • pmjv@lemmy.sdf.orgOPM
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      1 day ago

      I will just as soon my Jack2Head finishes downloading the latest update!

  • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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    9 hours ago

    steal your data

    How does this theft work? Do they break into my computer or accounts & take it unauthorized? Is it my data?

    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      afaik if you accept to log in to a microsoft account when you install windows 10 or 11, it’ll set up your documents, photos and some other directories for sync to your onedrive account.

      but if something’s running on your computer outside of a browser or VM, it has access to all your files anyway.

    • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      It’s mostly passive tracking of network traffic. You data could be further compromised depending on the operating system you use and the threat model under which you operate.

      • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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        2 hours ago

        It’s mostly passive tracking of network traffic.

        That data seems as much the recipient’s data as the sender’s or of any system capable to observe transport. If I see someone go down the street & stop somewhere, is that traffic observation really their data? The internet protocol wasn’t built for privacy of that layer of activity.

        data could be further compromised depending on

        A protocol disclosing data as designed is compromised? Are we talking about (1) actually compromised systems permitting unauthorized access to data or (2) services working as designed & getting data per usage agreement?

        Legal definition

        Theft is the taking of another person’s personal property with the intent of depriving that person of the use of their property.

        If we’re talking about (2), then how is that theft?

  • tequinhu@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Ahh, I thought that there were some recent controversies with it (reading from the other comments), but I didn’t understand if there was